Obvious

“Isn’t it obvious?” said Li Mei as we walked down to the corner store to buy popsicles with the change we had managed to scrounge up from our respective houses. “Your favorite food is rice. You eat it every day.”

“So? Grace eats bread every day and it’s not her favorite food.”

Li Mei’s eyes looked toward the sky as she attempted to walk and think at the same time. There weren’t any lampposts or people in front of her, so it ended up working out. I counted the steps before she answered: 37.

“Ok, I guess so. So…is your favorite food soy sauce?”

“That’s not a food, Li Mei. That’s a sauce.” There was a big word that started with the letter “c” that described it, but I couldn’t remember what it was. I was only six years old, after all.

“I know! Peanut butter!”

“Yuck!”

I didn’t really eat much in the way of “American” food. Not at that age, anyways. I went to Grace’s house for lunch once. They had some stringy, sticky yellow stuff in a bowl and some mushy brownish-white paste between two pieces of white bread. Grace told me we were having macaroni and cheese and tuna fish sandwiches. The macaroni was good. I ate all of it. I took one bite of the sandwich and stared at the rest of it while Grace finished hers. We chugged our milk in tandem and shouted “Jinx!” in unison as we slammed our glasses down and raced each other outside to play on the swingset.

In the present day, this Morninglight cult tells me my favorite food is tacos. I know this because I snooped in their files on “Obstructive Persons.” Alina Florea is one for losing their documents. Dusko Biukovic is also one for stealing their documents. Me? I’m an OP because I hacked their systems and stole everything.